About the project

The gender gap in senior research positions at Danish universities is alarming, particularly within STEM, but is also addressed through various actions plans and diversity initiatives. This projects looks at what happens when diversity work happens. It particularly addresses affective investments taking place when diversity work is enacted. E.g. when discussions of how ‘diversifying the curriculum’ or ‘gendered/racialized biased methods’ result in conflicts during collegial meetings, or when (proud) celebrations of organisational diversity conceal frustration, anger or disappointment of some employees. Conceptualizing diversity work as ‘mood work’, the project aims to explore and learn from affective practices taking place in and across local STEM micro-milieus at Danish universities: How does diversity work affect Academia and academic subjectivities? How do affective investments affect the enactment and fulfilment of diversity work? The project focuses upon the small experiments of everyday diversity work and the cultural archive of diversity technologies. Specifically, we centre upon the affective investments and atmospheres that channel and energise processes of diversity work, and through which Danish and international scholars’ motivation and senses of (non) belonging emerge.

• About the project